Reading time: 4 minutes

The European housing crisis, perhaps more than any other issue, lurks beneath the surface of our political landscape like a vast iceberg.

Where shall we all live? a new report from MCC Brussels was written by Austin Williams and Zhanet Mishineva and tells the story of the housing sector across the EU is in crisis. Demand is soaring, yet housing construction lags behind. Despite a construction workforce of 7.6 million people and recovery efforts post-lockdown, homelessness persists at alarming rates—900,000 people without shelter on any given night in 2022.

While challenges like population growth, inflation, and planning restrictions play a role, this report focuses on a less-discussed factor: the impact of sustainability policies and environmental constraints. As Europe prioritizes carbon reduction and energy efficiency, these measures introduce significant costs, particularly for poorer regions.

This report examines how these environmental initiatives shape housing availability, comparing their effects on wealthier nations to those in eastern and southern Europe.

Read the full report here

Some Key Facts:

  • There are about 7.6 million people working in the construction industry in the EU (4% of all EU employment)and even though 435,000 construction jobs were lost as a result of lockdown, this remains a considerable productive force;
  • In the UK one property specialist, Jones Lang LaSalle, predicts that there will be a cumulative shortfall of 720,000 homes between 2023 and 2028, “plunging the UK towards an ever-worsening supply crisis”;
  • A 10-year-old survey by Savills notes that the European average dwelling size is 96m², with the Netherlands at 106.7m² and Denmark with the most spacious homes at 115.6 m²;
  • The Netherlands needs to build around 75,000 homes each year to provide for its needs. However, this target figure had to be significantly reduced by 40 per cent in 2019–2020 due to the need to mitigate nitrogen emissions associated with its construction industry;
  • The German government said it would build 400,000 new homes every year and has managed to provide just half of that total. At the moment it has a shortfall of around 600,000 much-needed apartments and this is predicted to rise to 830,000 by 2027;
  • The demographics are complicated by a significant influx of migrants to European member states in recent years, with 1.6 per cent (seven million) of the EU population now classified as refugees. Germany, for example, is now home to 2.6 million refugees and ‘other people in need of international protection’;
  • Approximately 9.1 per cent of non-EU immigrants are employed in the construction industry, helping to build much-needed homes, but also helping to occupy them;
  • There is reputedly a shortage of 800,000 apartments in Germany, and last year just 245,000 apartments were built, yet by 2024 Germany had an annual influx of 266,224 undocumented immigrants, a 33.4 per cent increase on 2022;
  • The EU imposes ‘sustainable construction’ mandates on member states’ house-building targets and demands that from 2030, all new buildings must be zero-emission. It also imposes limits on existing residential buildings demanding that renovation work begin immediately to reduce the energy burden on houses by 16 per cent by 2030 and 20–22 per cent by 2035.

Read the full report here

About the reports authors:

Austin Williams is an architect, director of the Future Cities Project and founder of the mantownhuman manifesto featured in Penguin Classics’ 100 Artists Manifestos. He is theauthor of China’s Urban Revolution and New Chinese Architecture: Twenty Women Building the Future. His other books include: Enemies of Progress: The Dangers of Sustainability, The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exaggerated, and The Lure of the City: From Slums to Suburbs. Currently, Williams is the course leader in the postgraduate diploma programme in Architecture and Professional Practice at Kingston School of Art in London and honorary research fellow at XJTLU University, Suzhou, China.

Zhanet Mishineva is an architect, practising in London for over five years. She is associate director at Clive Chapman Architects and runs residential and commercial projects in London and Windsor at various scales across all RIBA Work stages. She is originally from Bulgaria and completed her Architecture degree at the Welsh School of Architecture (WSA) Cardiff University, followed by qualification diploma at Kingston University. She is now an M. Arch tutor at the WSA where she mentors Year 4 students in both academic and professional development in practice.